We use the > character to indicate the selection of a menu item from a menu. For example, we use the notation File > Open File... to indicate that you should select the Open File... menu item from the File menu.

To start Microsoft Visual C# 2010 Express Edition, select Start > All Programs > Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express > Microsoft Visual C# 2010 Express. Once the Express Edition begins execution, the Start Page displays (Fig. 2.1). Depending on your version of Visual Studio, your Start Page may look different. The Start Page contains a list of links to Visual Studio 2010 IDE resources and web-based resources. At any time, you can return to the Start Page by selecting View > Start Page.

Figure 2.1. Start Page in Visual C# 2010 Express Edition.

The Start Page links are organized into sections—Recent Projects, Get Started and Latest News—that contain links to helpful programming resources. Clicking any link on the Start Page displays relevant information associated with the specific link. [Note: An Internet connection is required for the IDE to access some of this information.] We refer to single clicking with the left mouse button as selecting or clicking. We refer to double clicking with the left mouse button simply as double clicking.

The Recent Projects section contains information on projects you’ve recently created or modified. You can also open existing projects or create new ones by clicking the links above this section. The Get Started section focuses on using the IDE for creating programs and learning Visual C#.

The Latest News tab provides links to the latest Visual C# developments (such as updates and bug fixes) and to information on advanced programming topics. To access more extensive information on Visual Studio, you can browse the MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) library at msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/default.aspx. The MSDN site contains articles, downloads and tutorials on technologies of interest to Visual Studio developers. You can also browse the web from the IDE by selecting View > Other Windows > Web Browser. To request a web page, type its URL into the location bar (Fig. 2.2) and press the Enter key—your computer, of course, must be connected to the Internet. The web page that you wish to view appears as another tab in the IDE (Fig. 2.2).

Figure 2.2. Displaying a web page in Visual Studio.

To begin programming in Visual C#, you must create a new project or open an existing one. Select either File > New Project... to create a new project or File > Open Project... to open an existing project. From the Start Page, above the Recent Projects section, you can also click the links New Project... or Open Project.... A project is a group of related files, such as the Visual C# code and any images that might make up a program. Visual Studio 2010 organizes programs into projects and solutions, which contain one or more projects. Multiple-project solutions are used to create large-scale programs. Most of the programs we create in this book consist of a single project.

When you select File > New Project... or click the New Project... link on the Start Page, the New Project dialog (Fig. 2.3) displays. Dialogs are windows that facilitate user–computer communication.

Figure 2.3. New Project dialog.

Visual Studio provides several templates (Fig. 2.3). Templates are the project types users can create in Visual C#—Windows Forms applications, console applications, WPF applications and others. In this chapter, we build a Windows Forms Application. Such an application executes within a Windows operating system (such as Windows 7) and typically has a graphical user interface (GUI)—the visual part of the program with which the user interacts. Windows applications include Microsoft software products like Microsoft Word, Internet Explorer and Visual Studio; software products created by other vendors; and customized software that you and other programmers create.

By default, Visual Studio assigns the name WindowsFormsApplication1 to a new Windows Forms Application project and solution (Fig. 2.3). Select Windows Forms Application, then click OK to display the IDE in Design view (Fig. 2.4), which contains the features that enable you to create programs.

Figure 2.4. Design view of the IDE.

The rectangle in the Design area titled Form1 (called a Form) represents the main window of the application that you’re creating. Visual C# applications can have multiple Forms (windows)—however, most applications you’ll create in this text will use only one Form. You’ll learn how to customize the Form by adding GUI controls—in this example, you’ll add a Label and a PictureBox (as you’ll see in Fig. 2.25). A Label typically contains descriptive text (for example, "Welcome to Visual C#!"), and a PictureBox displays an image, such as the Deitel bug mascot. Visual C# Express has many preexisting controls and other components you can use to build and customize your programs.

Figure 2.5. Textbox control for modifying a property in the Visual Studio IDE.

In this chapter, you’ll work with preexisting controls from the .NET Framework Class Library. As you place controls on the Form, you’ll be able to modify their properties. For example, Fig. 2.5 shows where the Form’s title can be modified and Fig. 2.6 shows a dialog in which a control’s font properties can be modified.

Figure 2.6. Dialog for modifying a control’s font properties.

Collectively, the Form and controls make up the program’s GUI. Users enter data (inputs) into the program by typing at the keyboard, by clicking the mouse buttons and in a variety of other ways. Programs use the GUI to display instructions and other information (outputs) for users to view. For example, the New Project dialog in Fig. 2.3 presents a GUI where the user clicks the mouse button to select a template type, then inputs a project name from the keyboard (the figure is still showing the default project name WindowsFormsApplication1 supplied by Visual Studio).

Each open file name is listed on a tab. To view a document when multiple documents are open, click its tab. Tabs facilitate easy access to multiple open documents. The active tab (the tab of the currently displayed document) is highlighted in yellow (for example, Form1.cs [Design] in Fig. 2.4).

The Solution Explorer window (Fig. 2.17) provides access to all of a solution’s files. If it’s not shown in the IDE, click the Solution Explorer icon in the IDE (Fig. 2.13), select View > Other Windows > Solution Explorer or type <Ctrl> <Alt> L. When you open a new or existing solution, the Solution Explorer displays the solution’s contents.

Figure 2.17. Solution Explorer window with an open project.

The solution’s startup project is the one that runs when you select Debug > Start Debugging (or press the F5 key). For a single-project solution like the examples in this book, the startup project is the only project (in this case, WindowsFormsApplication1) and the project name appears in bold text in the Solution Explorer window. When you create an application for the first time, the Solution Explorer window lists entries for the project’s Properties and References, and the files Form1.cs and Program.cs (Fig. 2.17). The Visual C# file that corresponds to the Form shown in Fig. 2.4 is named Form1.cs (selected in Fig. 2.17). Visual C# files use the .cs file-name extension.

By default, the IDE displays only files that you may need to edit—other files that the IDE generates are hidden. The Solution Explorer window includes a toolbar that contains several icons. Clicking the Show All Files icon (Fig. 2.17) displays all the solution’s files, including those generated by the IDE. Clicking the arrows to the left of a file or folder expands or collapses the project tree’s nodes. Try clicking the arrow to the left of References to display items grouped under that heading (Fig. 2.18). Click the arrow again to collapse the tree. Other Visual Studio windows also use this convention.

Figure 2.18. Solution Explorer with the References node expanded.

The Toolbox (View > Other Windows > Toolbox) contains icons representing controls used to customize Forms (Fig. 2.19). With visual programming, you can “drag and drop” controls onto the Form and the IDE will write the code that creates the controls for you. This is faster and simpler than writing this code yourself. Just as you do not need to know how to build an engine to drive a car, you do not need to know how to build controls to use them. Reusing preexisting controls saves time and money when you develop programs. You’ll use the Toolbox when you create your first program later in the chapter.

Figure 2.19. Toolbox window displaying controls for the Common Controls group.

The Toolbox groups the prebuilt controls into categories—All Windows Forms, Common Controls, Containers, Menus & Toolbars, Data, Components, Printing, Dialogs, WPF Interoperability and General are listed in Fig. 2.19. Again, note the use of arrows, which can expand or collapse a group of controls. We discuss many of the Toolbox’s controls and their functionality throughout the book.

To display the Properties window, select View > Other Windows > Properties Window or click the Properties window toolbar icon shown in Fig. 2.13. The Properties window displays the properties for the currently selected Form (Fig. 2.20), control or file in Design view. Properties specify information about the Form or control, such as its size, color and position. Each Form or control has its own set of properties—a property’s description is displayed at the bottom of the Properties window whenever that property is selected.

Figure 2.20. Properties window.

Figure 2.20 shows Form1’s Properties window. The left column lists the names of the Form’s properties—the right column displays the current value of each property. You can sort the properties either alphabetically (by clicking the Alphabetical icon) or categorically (by clicking the Categorized icon). The properties can be sorted alphabetically from A to Z or Z to A—sorting by category groups the properties according to their use (that is, Appearance, Behavior, Design, etc.). Depending on the size of the Properties window, some of the properties may be hidden from view on the screen. Users can scroll through the list of properties by dragging the scrollbox up or down inside the scrollbar, or by clicking the arrows at the top and bottom of the scrollbar. We show how to set individual properties later in this chapter.

The Properties window is crucial to visual programming—it allows you to modify a control’s properties visually, without writing code. You can see which properties are available for modification and, in many cases, can learn the range of acceptable values for a given property. The Properties window displays a brief description of the selected property, helping you understand its purpose. A property can be set quickly using this window, and no code needs to be written.

At the top of the Properties window is the component selection drop-down list, which allows you to select the Form or control whose properties you wish to display in the Properties window (Fig. 2.20). Using the component selection drop-down list is an alternative way to display a Form’s or control’s properties without clicking the actual Form or control in the GUI.

Visual Studio provides context-sensitive help pertaining to the “current content” (that is, the items around the location of the mouse cursor). To use context-sensitive help, click an item, such as the Form, then press the F1 key. The help documentation is displayed in a web browser window. To return to the IDE, either close the browser window or select the icon for the IDE in your Windows task bar. Figure 2.24 shows the help page for a Form’s Text property. You can view this help by selecting the Form, clicking its Text property in the Properties window and pressing the F1 key.

Figure 2.24. Using context-sensitive help.